Staring Quietly at the Backwash (2016)

INA LOUNGUINE

Lounguine’s piece offers a multi-sensory and immersive comment on the Mediterranean refugee crisis. Visually, a series of politicians’ handshakes is imposed over footage of lapping waves of a calm sea. The peacefulness of this scene clashes with the sound of danger and panic heard when one decides to wear the headphones. Voices and screams of refugees act as a disturbing soundtrack to a scene that one could imagine hidden behind the central hand shaking image. This combination of anonymous images and sounds creates an interaction between the imagined and the real, translating thus the difficulty in fully comprehending such a situation.

Caption:

Ina Lounguine, Staring Quietly at the Backwash (2016).Video still (Video, 2:02 mins). Courtesy of the artist.